The Florida Panthers: A Rare Sighting

With the NHL's current scheduling format, the Wings only see some blossoming Eastern Conference teams once a season and. The Panthers are one of those teams. The Panthers are playing better than they have in many recent seasons and have a chance to outpace the Washington Capitals and take the Southeast title.

The Wings and Panthers face off at 4 PM at Joe Louis. Detroit is looking to rebound after a 4-1 loss to Nashville on Friday night while Florida is coming off a 4-1 loss defeat at the hands of Columbus. Neither team has been great of late, Florida is 5-2-3 and Detroit is 2-6-2 in their last 10 games respectively. If Florida doesn't win their division they could also end up missing the playoffs so every point is crucial.

The Panthers are led in scoring by Tomas Fleischmann who was drafted by Detroit in 2002 and was traded to Washington in 2004 as part of the Robert Lang deal. Their defense is led by the high-scoring duo of Brian Campbell (4 G, 47 A) and Jason Garrison (16 G, 15 A).

Gustav Nyquist may replace Todd Bertuzzi on a line with Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen to give the second line a spark. Kyle Quincey will be back in the lineup on defense for Detroit.

Follow TCL Red Wings on Facebook and Twitter for more Wings coverage and to win a free Nicklas Lidstrom jersey!